Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-22
JOHN I. BLAIR'S MILLIONS.
He Has Owned More Niles of Railroad than
ANY Other OAe Man.

New York Sun.
John l. Blair, the witness before the
Pacific Railroad commission last week, is
one of the oldest characters in the coun-
try. He is already beyond the regulation
three-score and ten, but LOOKS after his
ten or more millions as vigorously as he
used to manage his dollars when he was q
poor but thrifty youngster in Warren
county, New York. He made his own
start IN life, and got his FIRST taste of
wealth from some railroad building IN
Warren county. The bulk of his fortune,
however, he gained in building roads Ill
Iowa. His general scheme WAS to get up
Company to build a road through new
territory. Then he got the people along
the line to chip in enough to pay all the
expenses of building the road, the work
nelug done by construction company,
which YVES him in another form. Bonds
were issued for this ana stock equal ia
amount to the bonds was issued to his
company, which was also himself. The
BUILDING up OF the country by the road
made the stock valuable andJobn l. Blair
rich. At one time he owned more miles
of railroad than any man In the Country,
Vanderbilt not excepted. He built
the town of Blairst0Wn, where he
lives in q solidly magnificent
place. It is thriving village, some
distance from anywhere, in NV JERSEY.
To get to it and away from it ne built the
Blairstown railroad, the chief business OF
which is to carry j ohm 1. Blair back and
forth. He il the hero of inDumerahle
quaint snecdotes. A son liz es in fine
style at Belvidere, n. J. Once q frieud,
seeing the son drive gorgeous squip,ge
that cast the old mans modest Carriage
into the shade, remarked On the differ
ence:
"Well, you see," said the millionaire,
dryIy, 81 never had the advantage of o
rich father"
Once out west some of his men were
arrested and when he wanted to 90 bail
for them the judge, not impressed by his
rather rough eX:eEior, insisted on some
evidence OF his reliability Is bondsman
The old man trotted out few hundred
thousand dollars worth Of government
eonds that he had handy and offered TO
produce several millions of good railroad
bends if ne was given 3 few hours more
notice.
Once he rem on the Republican ticket
for Governor OF New jersey. The
agreement was that he was to
furnish the money and the poll
ticisns the experience. BE was
not elected, and at the end of
| the campaign he had the experience aud
the politicians had o big heap of money
1t was then that he told bis famous anec-
dote OF s western man who drove lot of
hogs from St. Louis, where hogs were
low, 20 Chico go, where they were high,
end finding that before he got there the
hog market had twisted around so that
swine were .hig 2er in ST. Louis than in
Chicago, drove the hogs back, again,
getting to St. Louis ia time TO strike g
depression in the ST. Louis hog market,
which was matched by an elevation at
Chicago. The man said, so the story
went, that he hadn't made much money
out of it, but ne had had the society OF
the hogs.
"Well, I'm like that feller," said
Blair. 81 heVn't been elected governor,
but I've had the society of the hogs"
Blair has dabbled in politics some time
since then, but mis- experience was not
lost. His contributions to campaign
funds have never. exceeded generosity.
He was delegate from New Jersey To
the convention that nominated Blaine,
and On the way out he kept a whole car
load OF young politicians up ell night tell
ing them funny stories. In the morning
be was the freshest and hesrtiest man in
the car.
He travels all ever the country alone,
eighteen than eighty.